Szczecin Lagoon

Szczecin Lagoon, Stettin Lagoon, Bay of Szczecin, or Stettin Bay (Polish: Zalew Szczeciński, German: Stettiner Haff), also Oder lagoon (German: Oderhaff), is a lagoon in the Oder estuary, shared by Germany and Poland. It is separated from the Pomeranian Bay of the Baltic Sea by the islands of Usedom and Wolin. The lagoon is subdivided into the Kleines Haff ("small lagoon") in the West and the Wielki Zalew (German: Großes Haff, "great lagoon") in the East. An ambiguous historical German name was Frisches Haff, which later exclusively referred to the Vistula Lagoon.

Geography

From the South, the lagoon is fed by several arms of the Oder river and smaller rivers like Ziese, Peene, Zarow, Uecker, and Ina. In the North, the lagoon is connected to the Baltic Sea's Bay of Pomerania with the three straits Peenestrom, Świna and Dziwna, which divide the mainland and the islands of Usedom and Wolin .

The lagoon covers an area of 687 km², its natural depth is an average 3.8 metres, and 8.5 metres at maximum. The depth of shipping channels however can exceed 10.5 metres. Thus, the lagoon holds about 2.58 km³ of water. The annual average water temperature is 11 °C.

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Szczecin

Szczecin (/ˈʃtʃɛtʃɪn/; Polish pronunciation: [ˈʂt͡ʂɛt͡ɕin]; German: Stettin, Swedish: Stettin known also by other alternative names) is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. In the vicinity of the Baltic Sea, it is the country's seventh-largest city and a major seaport in Poland. As of June 2011 the population was 407,811.

Szczecin is located on the Oder River, south of the Lagoon and the Bay of Pomerania. The city is situated along the southwestern shore of Dąbie Lake, on both sides of the Oder and on several large islands between the western and eastern branches of the river. Szczecin borders directly with the town of Police and is the urban center of the Szczecin agglomeration, that includes communities in the German states of Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

The city's history began in the 8th century as a Slavic Pomeranian stronghold, built at the site of today's castle. In the 12th century, when Szczecin had become one of Pomerania's main urban centres, it lost its independence to Piast Poland, Saxony, the Holy Roman Empire and Denmark. At the same time, the Griffin dynasty established themselves as local rulers, the population was converted to Christianity, and German settlers arrived from Western European states. The native Slavic population was assimilated in the following centuries. Between 1237 and 1243, the town was rebuilt, granted vast autonomy rights, and eventually joined the Hanseatic League.